Am I going mad???!

[Something Fishy]

Can they make their yellow stripes disappear??
I've a had a BB Goby for quite a while now .. I looked at him earlier .. and I thought ... I'm sure he had 3 yellow stripes & now he only has 2, anyway thought I must have just been mistaken. Anyway I've just looked at him now & he has 3 bright yellow stripes again!!!!!
Now I've heard the males go nearly completely yellow when spawning is going on but is it common for them to just make their stripes come & go? and if so any reasons behind it?

 

[nmonks]

I've never seen this, and it sounds quite odd. Mine don't vary their colours very much. But looking in the Baensch's Aquarium Atlas no. 1, they have pictures of a fish supposedly Brachygobius nunus and it looks "normal" in one photo, and a sort of washed out yellow in "breeding colours". Maybe your specimen is doing something along those lines?

I believe there is a dedicated goby mailing list, and possibly that's the place to ask?

Cheers,

Neale

Now I've heard the males go nearly completely yellow when spawning is going on but is it common for them to just make their stripes come & go? and if so any reasons behind it?

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[Bling]

My gobies change their colors a lot: there's a "collar" that's goes from white to almost black, and two of them have an "extra" line on their backs which aren't always visible. I don't know why. They aren't breeding, as far as I know.

 

[Something Fishy]

Thank you for both your replies, at least I'm not losing my mind! I have been monitoring Goby since and he does vary. Like you say the 'collar' stripe seems to sometimes be black, sometimes very pale yellow & sometimes bright yellow! I will post on that mailing list you suggested and see if anyone knows more. Thanks